La harina lo arregla todo.

The traveller booklist for 2017

A new year has started, and it´s now time to make plans for the next 12 months to go. This 2017 has begun with plenty of new challenges in the Freaky Foody family.

The family has grown, we are now three elements: the two of us and our little-fury-apparently-quite-old Pacho, a nutty coloured dog from a shelter.

The winter has turned pretty cold in Europe, even here in Barcelona. This means that our plans from here to the end of the cold season are going to be very simple: reading over a cup of tea with Pacho sitting next to us on the couch.

Here it comes our book selection. The recipe is made essentially of one ingredient: adventure.

And here it comes our list of suggestions in a totally random order, because we don’t like hierarchy:

A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earth-bound Travels in the Far East, by Tiziano Terzani

On 1976 the Italian journalist Terzani was in Hong Kong. A fortune- teller told him that on 1993 his life will be on danger and he must not take any airplane during that year. Terzani decides to respect the prophecy. And this is how his travel around Asia starts…

The Elephant’s Jurney, by José Saramago

On 1551 the elephant Solomon is given as a wedding present to the Archduke Maximilian by the Portuguese king. This is the story of Solomon’s travel from Spain to Vienna. And this book is in on our own reading-wish list for the upcoming months.

Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne

A classic. But if for some reasons you’ve never jumped into this book, I beg you to read it asap! Don’t wait any further and leave with Phileas Fogg and his valet Passepartout right now!

Patagonia Express, by Luis Sepúlveda

Al andar se hace el camino se hace el camino al andar. This is the original title in Spanish. No point in explaining you why it is needed to read this book at least once.

Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

Simply the most beautifully written book in the whole American literature. At least as far as we can judge… Since the moment we read the first pages we feel only one urge: go to Nantucket and take one bloody boat with Ishmael, Queegueg and Captain Ahab.

America, by Franz Kafka

Yes, we want you to read a looooot of classics this year! This is Kafka’s first and (unfortunately) incomplete novel. A young man from Prague, Karl, is forced to leave his hometown and immigrate far away because he had an affair with an older woman. So Karl has to take the first available ferry towards New York…and here his peculiar adventure began…

Cape Horn, by Francisco Coloane

Coloane was not simply a writer. He was above all an adventurer. He lived many lives, as seaman, as farmer and as journalist. His novels and tales are populated by rough men, who live in a harsh and immense nature. If you read just one of his books, be prepared to pack your stuff and go to Patagonia.

The Voices of Marrakesh, by Elias Canetti

Every single book written by Canetti will tickle your Wanderlust. He was born in Bulgaria, in a Jewish family with Spanish and Italian origins. His mother tongues were Judaeo-Spanish and German, but he spoke also Bulgarian and English among others. In his memoir The tongue set free he says that it is a shame for a Jewish to not speak at least four languages. He lived in Ruse, Manchester, Vienna, Zurich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris and London. This guy was the Wanderlust made human.

The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin

Chatwin was the absolute master of travel literature. This book in particular his a must-read for every single human being. It describes the writer’s trip around Australia following his research on Aboriginal songs and nomadic culture. It’s more a poetical essay rather than a novel.

Kon-Tiki, by Thor Heyerdahl

We have already spoken about this guy, because Thor is our hero! This book is the travel diary of Heyerdahl and his five fellows who crossed the Pacific Ocean on a balsa-wood raft to prove their historic theory: the ancient people from South America have settled Polynesia during the pre-Colombian period. That was a true adventure!